


Dollface

by ProseApothecary



Category: Masters of Sex
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 16:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20781491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProseApothecary/pseuds/ProseApothecary
Summary: Lillian never liked dolls.She resented the hands that dragged her to the aisle of girls’ toys, while she lingered at the chemistry sets.When she was, eventually, given a porcelain doll, she had yanked the head off to look inside, hoping for something to learn, something to discover. Something inside, beyond ruffles and a painted face.Understandably, this created a good deal of Parental Concern.





	Dollface

Lillian never liked dolls.

She resented the hands that dragged her to the aisle of girls’ toys, while she lingered at the chemistry sets.

When she was, eventually, given a porcelain doll, she had yanked the head off to look inside, hoping for something to learn, something to discover. Something inside, beyond ruffles and a painted face.

Understandably, this created a good deal of Parental Concern.

At least she was never given another doll.

Until now, she thinks, looking across at Virginia, sorting papers until they’re as neat as the necktie that brushes against them.

She has the wide-eyes, thick black lashes, cherry lips, perfectly curled hair, and a seemingly limitless store of pre-recorded messages to spout whenever she needs a man’s attention.

“I found your last paper _fascinating_,” or “I truly admire your work,” or “Your wife is a very lucky woman,” or any number of platitudes that make Lillian feel ill.

It makes her very easy to hate.

Until she grades Virginia’s work, and decides there might be something inside, after all.

She hires her, and Virginia stops giving her pre-recorded messages, and switches to jokes and retorts and anecdotes.

They have their first yelling match, and Virginia’s lipstick bleeds, just a little, from the corner of her mouth, and Lillian feels a strange sort of relief that it’s not as impervious as she thought.

Virginia keeps being obsequious to every man who walks through their door, but Lillian can, at least, see the gears whirring inside when it happens, the complex machinery that can make her act so simplistically.

Lillian’s machinery is shutting down.

She can barely move or think for herself, sometimes. Her voicebox keeps glitching.

Each morning, she wakes feeling like one of the dolls in the bargain bin. No refunds and no returns.

Until one night, her Blue Fairy kisses her.

And she feels blood run through her veins once more.


End file.
